In the 220 years since his death, commentators, especially those on the left, have hailed Robespierre as a heroic, if tragic, figure. Yet that memory has been hugely contested. His parting words were: “I leave you my memory, and you will defend it.” He would become a martyr for the revolutionary cause to which he had dedicated his life. The night before his arrest he spoke at the Jacobin Club, the nerve centre of his support, telling the emotional audience that the speech was his “last will and testament”. In fact, Robespierre saw his death coming. Spectacular as it was, Robespierre’s fall from grace came as no great surprise. Soon after his arrival, members of his own radical group, the Jacobins, were shouting him down, preventing him from speaking. All that changed when Robespierre took his seat at the National Convention – the French Revolutionary Assembly – on 9 Thermidor (27 July).
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